Scene 2
from And the Girls in their Sunday Dresses
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2019
Summary
THE LADY and THE WOMAN. Still on the queue. THE WOMAN is sitting on the chair, and THE LADY is impatiently pacing the floor.
LADY: It is the inertia that kills me.
WOMAN: What's that?
LADY: Inactivity.
WOMAN: We could kill time by playing some game.
LADY: Like what?
WOMAN: Liketo. We could get some small stones and play liketo.
LADY: On this wet ground?
WOMAN: I forgot about that. The wet ground. We could devise a game. Something we can play while one of us is sitting on the chair and the other one is standing up.
LADY: Maybe we could lay every guy on this queue.
WOMAN [standing up and horrified]: What!
LADY: Lay them, you know. The poor guys have been standing here for days, and I am sure quite a few of them are horny. We could all have a ball.
WOMAN: I think that's disgusting.
LADY [with relish]: Yeah, let's all be disgusting.
WOMAN: But then, it's something you are used to. It's your profession, you said.
LADY: Just for kicks this time. We wouldn't dream of charging these wretched souls a cent.
WOMAN: Why did you become a prostitute?
LADY: Eh?
WOMAN: You heard me.
LADY: You expect a sob story, I am sure. A broken home. Abused as a child by a step-father. Family so poor we had to scrounge for food any way and anywhere we could. I am sorry to disappoint you. I was from a very happy family. We were not millionaires, but we had enough to eat. You can even say we lived almost on the wealthy side of the street. I went to a private school. Even up to university. Attempted a BA. Didn't finish though.
WOMAN: Then why did you become a prostitute?
LADY: Choice! Godammit, can't a woman choose what she wants to do with her life?
WOMAN: You are such a beautiful woman. You could have made some lucky man a good wife.
LADY: I did make somebody a good wife. I was so damn good that he left me. Ran away with the maid.
THE WOMAN has seen something which excites her.
WOMAN: Look, they are loading it into the trucks!
LADY: What?
WOMAN: The fucken rice we are waiting for. They are loading it into those trucks.
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- Information
- And the Girls in their Sunday DressesFour Works, pp. 12 - 22Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 1993